‘The medical team travel to a dusty church – turned mobile clinic – of a township *Nakasoo situated in the sprawling, suburbs of Kampala .  The building is just a wattle and dawb mud hut with an ill-fitting corrugated roof.

As I triage the patients I notice a young woman in her twenties sobbing pitifully.  She sports a blue ‘Manchester United’ football top and bright white pumps, stained red by the African soil.  She clutches her sick toddler, baby D.  I place my hand on his forehead.  Copious beads of sweat moisten his ringworm infested scalp.  I pop my Braun digital thermometer into his ear – it reads 41.5ºC.  He is practically unconscious and semi-moribund, close to death.  I whisk mother and child into my makeshift consulting room.  Juliet takes a blood lancet  and paracheck-tests his index finger.  Two stripes – positive diagnosis confirmed.  I open a bottle of Calpol and measure out 5mls by teaspoon.  The left overs we administer rectally as he struggles to swallow enough.

I break open a glass ampoule of Artemether, disposing of the sharps and glass in the big yellow bin which has travelled all the way from Harley Street .  A quick brush of his anterior thigh with an alcohol Steret and 30mg of Artemether is injected into his quads.  Half an hour later the child is swallowing.  Mary crushes up some yellow Coartem tablets, as per MSF protocol, and oral treatment ensues.  Glugg – glugg – glugg – he downs a cup of ORS reconstituted with my own supply of Vittel bottled water.

I review said baby 6 hours later.  Now he is bright and alert, playing peek-a-boo with his Mum.  A different child, a healthy child well on the way to recovery.  He is babbling away in basic Luganda.  The transformation is spectacular, words can’t amply describe it.  Having turned the corner in 6 hours his prognosis is excellent.  I hand his Mum a Permanet bednet and my interpreter translates the instructions.  I tell her that her children will live if they sleep under this net religiously.  She gets down on her knees – kisses my feet and mother and child walk off into the sunset, happy and healed.’

With much love and best wishes